You're welcome, ytmuse.
It might be important to note that many of the companies that represent copyright holders (like CEG TEK) have been taking to court more infringers who refuse to settle upon receipt of a settlement demand letter. These suits are filed against individual John Does (often identified by an IP address only), or they are filed against an identified Doe after a subpoenaed ISP has released identifying account information.
Seemingly gone from the courts are the pre-discovery mass defendant John Doe suits of the past, which resulted in not only a lot of controversy but also the filing of some legal actions against the companies and attorneys filing the suits.
These new infringement suits are avoiding the jurisdiction issues raised in the past by filing the suits in the John Does' home states, and they are avoiding the improper joinder issues by not linking together a disparate group of infringers from around the country. It can be harder for a defendant to get a suit dismissed now, and it is harder for a defendant to argue against the illegal download tracking evidence presented against them by the copyright holders. This evidence is holding up in court.
Not all that long ago, Malibu Media (one of the big companies with numerous infringement suits filed in several courts throughout the country) won a big victory against one of its identified infringers in a Pennsylvania court ($110,000+ and attorney fees). Damages awarded in copyright infringement suits can be high if an infringer chooses not to settle out of court. An infringer should not expect to escape a court action with just a $300 judgment against them but should expect instead courts to order amounts in the multi-thousands-of-dollars range (within the $750 up to $150,000 per infringement statutory limits for which the owner of a registered copyright holder is eligible). When the costs of the plaintiffs go up (as they will if a trial is necessary), so generally will the amount of damages awarded.
That said, and although it is possible for a US copyright holder to pursue a foreign infringer, the costs of such an action are often prohibitively expensive. Therefore, a copyright infringement suit against a foreign infringer who has downloaded a single copyrighted work is unlikely to follow a demand letter. On the other hand and in some cases and for especially egregious infringement that involves either numerous copyrighted works or large amounts of money, the Department of Justice may decide to pursue criminal infringers located in other countries. A foreign infringer should not feel safe from suit, in other words.
As often advised in the past, people should avoid BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing and illegal downloads.